plane table

¹ American  

Or plain table

noun

Surveying.

1. a drawing board mounted on a tripod, used in the field, with an alidade, for surveying tracts of land.

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plane-table ² American  

[pleyn-tey-buhl] / ˈpleɪnˌteɪ bəl /

verb (used with or without object)

plane-tabled, plane-tabling

1. to survey with a plane table.

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plane table British  

noun

1. a surveying instrument consisting of a drawing board mounted on adjustable legs, and used in the field for plotting measurements directly

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verb

1. to survey (a plot of land) using a plane table

Etymology

Origin of plane table¹

First recorded in 1600–10

Origin of plane-table¹

First recorded in 1870–75

Example Sentences

Much better was the plane table—an expeditious medium of which Mademoiselle Laverrière had made use for the purpose of noting down in an album the direct communications of Louis XII.,

From Project Gutenberg

Additionally I had had some experience in plane table surveying but none of these attributes had a place in the kind of life I envisioned.��

From Project Gutenberg

Theodolite and plane table work are not suited to very cold climates.

From Project Gutenberg

The word is found in some older English Dictionaries, and in France and Italy is still applied to the traversing index of a plane table or of a sextant.

From Project Gutenberg